Town Square

Bloom Energy closing manufacturing operation in California

Original post made
by Ken, Birdland,
on Aug 23, 2013

Bloom Energy has announced that due to high costs of manufacturing and cash flow issues it will be moving its manufacturing operations to Delaware where they have received huge incentives. How long can this be allowed to happen in California?

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Posted by anon
a resident of Another Pleasanton neighborhood
on Aug 23, 2013 at 6:59 pm

Bloom Energy is a company which is a recipient of $595,000,000 worth of green energy Obama dollars similar to Solyndra. They currently employ about a 1,000 people in Santa Clara. The equipment they make converts natural gas into electricity cheaply but apparently not to cheaply otherwise with energy as expensive as it is they would not be in dire straights. I just think at this point it is almost impossible to manufacture in California and be profitable. I would not call them real companies but Google, Facebook, Twitter, et al are the only ones who can do well in this state until the roof falls in and people realize that Yahoo, Google, et al are not real companies and will collapse.

Posted by Joe
a resident of Another Pleasanton neighborhood
on Aug 23, 2013 at 9:49 pm

Long ago the high-tech manufacturers learned that lesson. Intel has built is fabs in OR, AZ, NM, and overseas, ditto for other chip companies and hardware manufacturers. Kudos to CA government for setting the bar high and demanding health, environmental, and social regulations, but at some point it just becomes too expensive to do business here. That point has passed for much of CA's manufacturing base and is getting worse, not better.

Posted by Bloom Doomers are funny
a resident of Another Pleasanton neighborhood
on Aug 23, 2013 at 10:02 pm

Obviously California needs to roll back its environmental regulations, eliminate taxes on corporations, make it even more difficult for the poor to collect food stamps, have a standard across the board income tax which makes poor people and their kids pay their fair share, eliminate minimum wage -- all so that companies like Bloom can stay and make their profits. Right.

Far more companies moved into California this past year than left. But some states are willing to do whatever it takes to entice corporations to their state. Heck, some, like Texas, are willing to become China.

So, the Dow is above 15,000. Where's all the trickle down jobs? Oh, that's right, the wealthy have decided to extend their parasitical nature by buying up California houses they don't need -- over 1/2 of all houses sold this past quarter were paid for in cash -- and then rent them out at a profit. Jobs created from the job creators (what a joke, that descriptor) = zero. Profits from rents, to then be turned into more profits = mucho, mucho bucks.

And there are those who crap their pants because a couple of companies want to move to Delaware, or China? The ignorance is staggering.

Posted by Joe
a resident of Another Pleasanton neighborhood
on Aug 24, 2013 at 12:08 am

Bloom, I only wish it were so. Companies are not moving into CA, as your post states. Manufacturing in particular has been moving out of the state for quite a number of years. Between 2001 and 2012, 600,000 manufacturing jobs, or 33% of the total, moved out of state. High-tech and software are doing well, but when product manufacturing is ramped up, it's done elsewhere.

Let me ask you this. Are you yourself willing to work at a loss? To spend your time and effort, and have less at the end of the day than what you started with? I think not. Then neither should you expect a company to do the same.

I'll go a step further. You are free to work at a loss if you choose. But to pay your rent and buy groceries, you'll need support from the government, and I for one am not willing to support you through my taxes while you figure out basic economics.

Posted by john
a resident of Another Pleasanton neighborhood
on Aug 24, 2013 at 4:59 pm

Bloom said:

" I would not call them real companies but Google, Facebook, Twitter, "

Sounds like someone is a little bitter maybe? Don't like it that some of your neighbors made a bit of money on stock options? Would you add Oracle, and Salesforce, and Workday to your list or "not real companies"? What about Apple? They seem to be doing okay. Seems like SAP has been doing a lot of hiring right across 580 from us. Is SAP a real company? I think you may also want to look at Tesla. As I recall, just a year or two ago, certain people were saying that Tesla was a joke, and that there would be no demand for their cars. What kind of "real companies" do you want in California? Coal mine operators? What is a "real" company?

I'm not saying California's business and regulatory environment is anywhere near optimal or shouldn't be fixed, but to say that "real" companies can't succeed in California is obviously ridiculous.

John I think they might have a point. Afterall how does Facebook and Google make money? Advertising selling information? I have no idea but seems a bit like a house of cards to me. What are the tangible assets? Apple on the other hand does have some physical assets although everything is made in China.

Regarding Bloom, they announced early this week about the move to Delaware. They said very simply that even with incentives in California they aren't competitive and are running out of cash pure and simple. By the way, watch that huge campus being built by Google outside of Austin, Texas. I would be at some time they will move out of the state or maybe leave a small presence here like Bloom will.

By the way I work at Tesla and everyday we go to work we are in fear of our jobs. We are also not making money but rather burning through it in big chunks. Additionally, we also "own" the environmental cleanup of the site and everything since 1962. We are not doing well at all.

Eric they do not have an operation in Pleasanton not sure where that came from. Announcement late last week internally and started with the laying off of the Vp of Mfg, Gm of Mfg, CIO, and various other Mfg individuals. In the future skeleton crew with left Santa Clara, R&D etc. all major operations in Delaware.

Posted by China
a resident of Another Pleasanton neighborhood
on Aug 25, 2013 at 8:31 pm

I read they were setting up operations in China.
I assumed it was because there might be more 'buyers'. Chinese are building a number of nuclear power plants, insuring abundance and affordability of power.